Canadian Pacific Railway's Profit Jumps as Shipments Rise

Shares of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. rose the most in almost three months after the company beat analysts’ estimates for profit and sales, powered by gains in grain and crude-oil shipments.

“The second-quarter results demonstrate that it is well on track to achieve meaningful year-over-year earnings growth,” Cameron Doerksen, a National Bank Financial analyst in Toronto, said in a note to clients. He has a sector perform rating on the stock.

The gains at the country’s second-largest carrier build on similar increases reported this week at CSX Corp. After a first quarter in which North American railroads were hit by unseasonably harsh winter weather, the industry is recovering as U.S. economic growth picks up and analysts project rail carloads climbed at the fastest pace since 2010.

Canadian Pacific shares climbed 2.3 percent to C$202.33 in Toronto, its biggest gain since April 30. That outpaced a 0.14 percent decline on Canada’s benchmark Standard & Poor’s/TSX Index.

Net income rose 47 percent to C$371 million ($345 million), or C$2.11 a share, the Calgary-based company said in a statement. That beat the C$2.09 average of estimates in a Bloomberg survey of 26 analysts. Revenue increased 12 percent to C$1.68 billion, beating the C$1.65 billion average estimate.

Canadian Pacific’s operating ratio, an industry benchmark that compares expenses to revenue, improved 680 basis points to 65.1 percent, the lowest on record according to Bloomberg Industries.

Leftovers from a record Canadian wheat crop helped Canadian Pacific post a 32 percent jump in grain revenue in that category. Earnings also benefited from an 18 percent increase in crude sales.

“We expected strong grain shipments due to the very large North American grain crop last year, but the shipments have been even stronger than we expected,” David Tyerman, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity in Toronto, said in a July 2 note to clients.